Chris Abbott author of Ten Minutes To The Pitch:
Chris Abbott's career began as a story editor on Little House on the Prairie. She went on to write for, consult on, and produce such shows as Cagney and Lacey, Magnum P.I. and Diagnosis Murder.

Q: Is pitching to celebrities different than pitching to studio people?

A: Pitching to any actor is different from pitching to an executive or a producer. The actor has different wants and needs than the producer. But pitching to a celebrity - and I've pitched to a few - Frank Sinatra, Carol Burnett, Jackie Cooper, Tony Curtis, Burt Reynolds, Tom Selleck, Ossie Davis, Tyne Daly, Sharon Gless, Jane Seymour, Dick Van Dyke, Rita Moreno, Michael Landon and John Hillerman -- requires an additional set of skills. It also requires more patience and more finesse. I've discovered, though, that actors in general, and especially those who have reached celebrity status, have a better understanding of material, of story and of what will play and what won't.

Q: Tell us about your very first pitch.

A: My very first pitch to a studio executive was also the most humiliating of my career. After waiting anxiously for my turn as this executive returned social call after social call, I launched into what I believed was a charming, romantic comedy. I was only three sentences in when this executive took his feet off his desk long enough to lambaste me for having the effrontery to bring him a story he couldn't use. "You call this a movie?" He snarled at me. "I call this a *$!&% waste of my time! I don't give a rat's ass about this movie."

Needless to say, he didn't green light the project.

Q: What made you persevere after an experience like that?

A: I'm stubborn. I'm obsessive. And I couldn't imagine letting anyone with such bad manners and obviously bad taste dictate the direction of my career. Don't get me wrong; it's hard to keep getting in the ring and getting knocked down, if not out. But if you have a burning desire to create cinematic worlds and if you believe you have something to contribute to either the art form or to popular culture, you have to keep going. We live in a world that is growing louder and more dissonant by the second. It's difficult to make your voice heard. That's no reason not to try; it's no reason not to persist.

Q: Tell us about some of your other "interesting" pitches.

A: Imagine trying to pitch when...

The executive takes a phone call, telling you to continue your pitch while he talks on the phone.

One after another, everyone in the room leaves and you finish up your pitch to yourself.

You realize you've accidentally picked a scab off your arm and you're bleeding all over the executive's brand new white carpet.

The executive says "I hope you haven't brought us one of those shows where they talk to the camera." Which is exactly what you've brought.

Q: And one of your most memorable?

A: This one was great. I had to go from Palm Beach, Florida, to Alice Springs, Australia. It took two days and a night to get there. I had to fly a prop plane from Sydney to Alice Springs (approximately the distance from LA to Chicago) because the Australian commercial pilots were on strike. A storm came up which meant the flying time went from a projected three hours to seven and a half hours and required us to make two unscheduled stops to refuel. When I finally set foot on solid land in Alice Springs, I announced I would repatriate rather than fly back on a prop plane. Tom Selleck bought the idea within five minutes which left us the rest of the evening for dinner. I flew back to Sydney on a chartered Lear jet.